PRS landlord to evict tenants on housing benefit

Fergus Wilson owns the properties in Kent and has sent eviction notices to 200 tenants. He has also alerted letting agents that he will no longer accept tenants who require housing benefit.

He said the move was economic and that he prefers Eastern European migrants to single mothers on benefits as they are more reliable in paying rent.

Mr Wilson told The Guardian: ‘The gap is such that I have taken the decision to withdraw from taking tenants on housing benefit. From what I can gather just about all other landlords have done the same. Our situation is that not one of our working tenants is in arrears - all those in arrears are on housing benefit.’

Backing up Mr Wilson’s claims that other landlords are doing the same, the National Landlords Association released research in December which revealed that the number of private landlords letting to people on benefits had dropped to just one in five.

He said a key factor was that it is impossible to obtain rent guarantee insurance for a tenant on housing benefit, designed to cover the rent if the tenant stops paying.

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